LegendaryGoji
The LegendaryGoji is the Godzilla design used in the 2014 Godzilla film, Godzilla. Name The LegendaryGoji's name comes from Legendary Pictures, and Goji, which comes from Godzilla's Japanese name, Gojira. The nickname, AmeriGoji, comes from the fact that the design appeared in an American film, and again Goji, which comes from Godzilla's Japanese name, Gojira Development The LegendaryGoji was primarily designed by Weta Workshop, who provided most of the creature effects for Peter Jackson's King Kong in 2005. Director Gareth Edwards has stated that there were over one hundred designs created for Godzilla. In one of the first conversions between Edwards and Weta, it was agreed that the concept of Godzilla was fundamentally impossible and unable to rationalize, meaning that the audience needed to rely on suspension of disbelief to take Godzilla seriously in the film. Gareth Edwards worked closely with Toho to make sure they approved of the design. According to Edwards, Toho was heavily involved in the design process. Edwards has also cited Weta Workshop concept artist Andrew Baker as the greatest creative influence on the LegendaryGoji design. Overall, the designers took great care to make Godzilla recognizable. Edwards personally felt that it was important to him to have the LegendaryGoji design feel like it was made by Toho. Early designs were based on dinosaurs, depicting Godzilla with his torso positioned vertically rather than horizontally like a theropod dinosaur or the TriStar Godzilla from the previous American Godzilla movie. Gareth Edwards explained "You have to steal from nature. Nature had billions of years to design Godzilla; we had one year." However, the goal when designing the famous kaiju was to not create a monster or Tyrannosaurus rex. Gareth Edwards even rejected one design he liked that was created by Greg Broadmore on the basis that he felt it "was too much like a T. rex." Several concepts also hearkened back to earlier Godzilla designs. The designers looked to the natural world for inspiration, including marine creatures such as marine iguanas and large oceanic mammals. Weta Workshop designers also worked on concepts for the tail, several of which were longer than the final version. One design by Christian Pearce notably featured what resembled older reconstructions of the thagomizer, the tail spikes that Stegosaurus had. One aspect of Godzilla design that received many variations in the design process was his dorsal plates. The dinosaur-esque design created by Broadmore featured triangular shaped fins like previous designs and his atomic breath was more electrical-based, similar to Frank Hong's early keyframe art. Gareth Edwards did not like this design, saying that the fins were "incredibly big" and added that "you didn't see that form anywhere else on his body." Edwards also felt that the lightning effect made it difficult to understand what the audience was looking at. Another potential design by Christian Pearce had the dorsal plates resemble the plates of Stegosaurus. At one point Godzilla had porcupine spines in place of his signature plates. Though Edwards admitted that he liked this design, saying that it made Godzilla aggressive, he rejected it explaining "The problem is it just isn't Godzilla." Two designs also featured a fish-like dorsal fin in place of Godzilla's signature plates. One design that Edwards thought would be the final option for the fins was a fish-like design. Christian Pearce and Andrew Baker, concept artists responsible for designing Godzilla who were also fans of the kaiju, were known to have arguments with Edwards to keep Godzilla's atomic breath and the shape of his fins. Eventually, Edwards agreed to keep the atomic breath, but he disagreed with the design of the fins and chose an angular, broken slate look with his reasoning being that this trait "made more sense, as if the fins growing out of Godzilla are brittle and break." However, the maple leaf-shaped dorsal plates seen in the majority of Godzilla's designs would later be incorporated into the LegendaryGoji design by the time the 2012 Comic Con teaser trailer was made. Another feature that was heavily focused on was the face. The filmmakers preferred Godzilla to have an angular face, with Edwards believing that rounded facial features made Godzilla look too "cute." Edwards began to favor an angular look for Godzilla after his displeasure with a retro-style design created by Broadmore that exhibited a rounded face. A grizzly bear was initially considered as a basis for Godzilla's face, as its skull is angular, but Edwards felt that the eyes of the bear "didn't look right." Edwards then became inspired by the design of the vulture-like Skeksis from Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal, which Edwards has stated are his favorite images from film, as he even had a book containing a full page of their eyes. Liking this trait, Edwards then told the designers to look at birds of prey and vultures as references. In the trend of using underwater life as a reference, Godzilla was given gills as well. The design process of Godzilla further continued after the release of the 2012 Comic-Con teaser with Moving Picture Company concept artist Matt Allsopp. Allsopp created the finalized design of Godzilla's head and his plates. The LegendaryGoji design received last-minute tweaks to his legs when his CG model was being animated, due too them being too thick. Detail For Godzilla's return, the King of the Monsters was revamped and given a new design that didn't look radically different from the established Godzilla designs like the TriStar Godzilla design from the 1998 film did. The LegendaryGoji design is completely computer generated, just like the ThirdStreetGoji. The LegendaryGoji's face is shaped very squarely, its neck is broad and appears to have gills. Its eyes are a yellow color, and its teeth are small and not nearly as straightly lined up as the previous Godzilla designs. The LegendaryGoji's nostrils are more separate than previous designs, with them being in opposite sides of the snout, making it more reptile-like instead of the more mammalian fashion of being close together in front of it. The design's head and neck seem to lean forward more so than any previous design. Its dorsal plates are smaller than the previous designs, but they still retain the core maple-leaf shape, although straighter and very sharp, somewhat like the MireGoji's. The LegendaryGoji's claws are black color, and its feet are wider and resemble an elephant's foot more than the other Godzilla designs do. Its skin is more reptile-like, crocodile-like and rougher than the other designs, and is a blackish color. Its body and tail are very wide as well, making it look somewhat bulkier than other Godzilla designs. Legendary has confirmed that their Godzilla's tail is 550 feet and 4 inches long, his height is 355 feet, there are exactly 89 dorsal plates running down his back, the palm of his hands are 34 feet and 4 inches each, and that his roar can be heard from three miles away. Use in Other Media Video Games *''Godzilla: Smash3'' *''Godzilla: Strike Zone'' *''Godzilla: The Game'' *''Godzilla: Kaiju Collection'' Comics *''Godzilla: Awakening'' Commercials *"GODZILLA" Trivia *Jim Rygiel has said that the Legendary Godzilla's fighting style was based on bears and komodo dragons. *Andy Serkis, who performed motion capture for King Kong in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake, was consulted to make the LegendaryGoji and the M.U.T.O.s' computer-generated movement more realistic. Godzilla's movements were based on lizards (such as the komodo dragon), bears, lions and wolves. **T.J. Storm did at least partial motion capture for Godzilla in the 2014 film. *This is the first Godzilla design to feature gills. Category:Godzilla incarnations